Anders Tegnell
As those who have persistently downplayed the dangers of Covid-19 explode in fury at Boris Johnson’s latest set of restrictions, the country they have lauded over and over again as the supreme example of beating the virus by avoiding lockdown is now lurching in the opposite direction.
Stockholm’s health chief, Björn Eriksson, warned on Tuesday that the city was seeing “worrying signs of increasing infection” and said he was in talks with the public health agency over bringing in local restrictions. He said these might include imposing quarantine on families where one member is infected.
Sweden's state epidemiologist, Anders Tegnell, has said he is now willing to recommend local lockdown measures, such as school closures and strict limits to the size of gatherings, for short periods. He is also now reconsidering his previous opposition to face-masks.
The Mail reports:
“We are thinking of fairly short restrictions, to break the spread of infection requires perhaps two to three weeks at most,' Tegnell told the Dagens Nyheter newspaper on Wednesday. 'We are still developing the concept, so to say, but something like that.”
Covid infections dropped to very low levels in Sweden the summer, prompting claims that its “no lockdown, no masks” strategy proved the down-players’ case that lockdowns and severe restrictions on people’s activities were unnecessary and counter-productive.
But as the Telegraph reported yesterday:
According to the Public Health Agency of Sweden, Dr Tegnell's agency, around 1,200 new cases and five deaths have been reported since Friday, a sharp increase on the average of around 200 cases per day seen in recent weeks.
…Unlike a similar blip at the end of the summer, which was confined to people in their 20s, cases were now rising among people in their 40s and 50s, and also among upper secondary school students, he said.
To accentuate the concern, the number of virus tests proving positive has suddenly jumped from 1.3 per cent to 2.2 per cent.
A week ago the Telegraph observed:
Fast forward five months and Sweden’s “long game” looks to be paying dividends…where Denmark is responding to a rise in cases with fresh rules, the government in Stockholm is easing the few restrictions it imposed to tackle the pandemic. “Judge me in a year,” said Sweden’s state epidemiologist, Anders Tegnell, back in July. But having been written off by many, the benefits of Sweden’s laissez-faire policy are becoming increasingly apparent.
Tegnell was nearer the mark. From the start, he’s been far more cautious and uncertain about his policy than his cheer-leaders abroad who have been opportunistically using Sweden’s example to attack their own governments.
Tegnell has undoubtedly made serious mistakes, as has virtually everyone else tasked with managing this unprecedented pandemic crisis. But unlike his callow and agenda-driven supporters abroad, he has always candidly admitted his limited understanding of Covid-19 and that, while seeking to chart the most sensible course for his country through this crisis, he might have got it wrong.
Maybe this setback for Sweden will turn out to be no more than a blip. Or maybe the Swedes will get sucked into the nightmare being experienced by Britain and other countries, where “whack-a-mole” is being forced to expand into whacking the entire field.
It will be a long while before we can conclude whether anyone has called this right. In the meantime, perhaps a little less hysteria and more humility might be in order.
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